The story is told by Jesus and is about a boss who, early in the day, hires workers to work for him at a set wage. He then goes out to the town and several times throughout the day hires more workers to work in his fields as well, all the way until the 11th hour, which I'm assuming is late in the day, he is still bringing on new labor. Then at the end of the day, he pays the workers who started later the same as he pays the workers who started in the morning. The workers that worked all day grumble and complain because they see that everyone made the same amount of money even though they all made what they had agreed upon. The boss hearing their grumbling simply responds to one of them, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?
Here's a GUIDEPOST.
We have to guard our hearts against having an "entitlement mentality"; a sense that we somehow deserve unwarranted or unjustified gain simply because. These workers were not grateful, they were ungrateful; yet they had work, they received the wage they'd been told they'd receive, no wrong had been done to them. Their entitlement mentality caused them to take their focus off of what I think it should have been, and that...simple gratitude.
Here are some ways I'm working on this in my life.
- Daily try to cultivate a generous heart
- Look outside yourself as often as you can
- Approach everything as a privilege
